Town of Osoyoos council has voted to implement a new system for its boat trailer park where visitors using hotels and motels will be given tags to use the park free of charge during their stay in town.
At a meeting of council two weeks ago, council reviewed a staff report on alternatives for enforcement of the boat trailer park.
There are residents of Osoyoos as well as non-resident property owners who are using the trailer park for the long-term storage of their boat trailer over the summer months, said Janette Van Vianen, the town’s director of corporate services.
This not only uses up space in the lot and makes maintenance more difficult, but also takes away business from the industrial park storage businesses who charge a nominal fee of around $55 per month for storage of a boat trailer, she said.
In previous years, town bylaw officers were using considerable time monitoring the parking lot for misuse and contacting owners if needed. In earlier discussions with council, it was not favoured to have a pay parking system, so a proposal that would still benefit tourists while limiting the amount of bylaw time necessary to ensure compliance was brought before council, said Van Vianen.
Recently council voted in favour of amending its Off-Street Parking Bylaw, which will allow for permits to be issued by hotel and motel owners free of charge to their patrons noting their hotel name and the departure date on the permit. All others may attend the town office to receive a single permit free of charge for a maximum of 14 days. Any request for a further term should be directed to the industrial park storage businesses.
If local residents or non-residents who own condos or vacation residences in Osoyoos want to access the boat trailer park, they will be able to do so by visiting the town office and purchasing a pass for $15 a week.
Coun. C. J. Rhodes was the most outspoken member of council about this issue arguing things should just be left alone as only a small handful of local residents abused the system and parked their boat trailers in the park free of charge over the past couple of years.
“Having this boat trailer park has been one of the best amenities we’ve offered in this town over the past several years,” said Rhodes. “I don’t know why we would want to increase the process and make things more difficult.
“I don’t see how any of the options we’re considering are going to improve anything down there. We shouldn’t be changing everything around just because of one bad incident down there in the past several years.”
Mayor Stu Wells disagreed saying the intent of the boat trailer park was to offer a free storage area for visitors only and this goal can be attained by having hotel and motel owners issuing passes to their customers.
It will be very easy for bylaw officers to check for tags from the hotels and motels and ensure only visitors are using the facility, said Wells.
“When we’re besieged with other more important issues, I don’t want to see our bylaw people down there in the boat trailer park,” he said.
Coun. Sue McKortoff believes having motel and hotel staff issuing the passes is the best solution.
“There are going to be a few people that will try and abuse the free parking down there no matter what we decide today,” she said.
Coun. Mike Plante said having parking passes issued by hotel and motel staff is a “great way of giving a friendly welcome” to visitors coming to town.
Charging $15 a week to use the boat trailer park to non-residents who come here on summer vacation is also a great idea, said Wells.
“They will pay a small fee for a great service,” he said.
Ryan agreed.
“I’ve always been in favour of charging a fee (to non-residents),” he said. “It’s fair and it’s reasonable.”
